vintage speakers

[leroyjr1]

How does the vintage SDA's, and monitors compare to the new polk speakers
RTI, LSI, monitors, etc.

Thanks

[schwarcw]

I like the sound of the vintage SDA's and Monitors. I also like the older RTA and RTi line of speakers. The LSi series of Polk speakers are excellent. The newer R and Monitor series are fine and offer good quality. The LSi's like the SDA's need a lot of good clean power to live up to their potential as they are 4 ohm speakers. The LSi monitor size speakers are great for both HT and 2 channel music.

[jon s]

The older Polks are more open than the newer ones which seems a bit laid back. The newer Polks treble is smoother on top, the bass goes lower and is tighter since the most of the older speakers use passive radiators rather than actively driven woofers.

The nice thing about the older Polks is that you can easily upgrade the crossovers to really improve the sound. Instead of spending several hundred dollars on a new pair, you can spend a few hundred buying a 20-year old speaker and upgrade the crossovers. The really nice thing about Polks is that the drivers usually have butyl rubber surrounds so you do not have to worry about foam rot.

After doing a crossover upgrade using Sonicaps and replacing any older polymide (plastic) tweeters with cloth domes, the older speakers have a lot better soundstage with a more open, focused image with greater depth than the new Polks. However, the older Polks do seem to be a tad "colored" compared to the newer models.

[F1nut]

the bass goes lower and is tighter since the most of the older speakers use passive radiators rather than actively driven woofers.

Huh? The bass in the SDA's goes deeper and is tighter because they use passive radiators rather than the ports in the newer models.

[Face]

Huh? The bass in the SDA's goes deeper and is tighter because they use passive radiators rather than the ports in the newer models.

The older models do have better bass, there's more of it and it's more controlled. But, I wouldn't blame the newer model's lack of good bass on the ported enclosure.

[george daniel]

I'll take the SDA bass anyday, it was easier for me to control/setup than the LSI series,YMMV,, setup and driven properly,,both are very good speakers.

[MillerLiteScott]

The Stereo Reviews that were posted not to long ago on various SDA models said the bass from the SDA's was one of the lowest (if not the lowest) distortion they had ever recorded.

[Lasareath]

I've only heard the LSi15's on a very powerful high current amp and they sounded like crap comparred to my 1.2TL's and even my SRS 2's

Sorry Matt :(